Transferring Houses

During freshman year, you think you know where you want to live. You list that house, get assigned to that house, but everything isn't as expected. So, you file an application to transfer. While most people may think that the average transfer applicant is seeking refuge from the Quad, reasons for transferring vary from looking for different living situations to different friends. And some students actually ask to transfer from the river to what they perceive as the better life at the Quad.

Fifteen students, all juniors, opted to transfer to a new house this semester. Among these, transfers to the Quad are not as uncommon as people might think. While the housing office refuses to give out information about which houses are most popular for transfers, Sharon Morrow, assistant to the master in North House, says that this year the Quad house had more people move in than left for another house.

Neil A. Mooney '88 recently transferred into North. He transferred, he says, "because all of my friends are here." Mooney says freshman year he had planned to block with a large group of friends who wanted Kirkland. At the last minute, Mooney and his roommate chose not to block with the high-risk group and selected Eliot. While the two got into Eliot, all their friends moved to the Quad.

"I ended up hanging out in the Quad anyway," Mooney says. "All my friends were here, and I came up a lot to be with them."

Overcrowding in Eliot was another factor in Mooney's decision to transfer to the Quad. Most Eliot residents live in crowded suites. Mooney, who had to share a room in Eliot, decided that he needed more space.

"I don't mind the walk either. It's a shorter walk to the shuttle bus than it is from Eliot to the yard. The stigma attached to the Quad is totally undeserved," Mooney says.

Mooney transferred between semesters like all students who wish to move to another house. Transfer applications are due in early May and mid-January and students move into their new quarters at the start of the semester.

January transfers have a significantly higher success rate than fall applications. Housing Officer Lisa M. Colvin says that there are usually more students enrolled in the College in the fall because more people tend to take the spring semester off, crowding the houses in the fall.

While this January, 75 percent of the students who applied for a transfer were allowed to make their proposed moves, only 22 percent were successful last fall. Every transfer was approved last January, while only 36 percent made the move in the fall of 1985, Colvin says.

Since the houses do not save room for interhouse transfers, the house can accommodate the same number of students who decided to take time off or move out. Overcrowding throughout the housing system has made these interhouse transfers more difficult as there is less flexibility.

Seniors receive priority to transfer, and a recently adopted rule requires sophomores to stay in their house for at least two semesters, says Winthrop House Assistant to the Master Kim E. Fraser. In the past, however, sophomores could transfer after just one semester. In January of 1984, 189 students--including 77 sophomores--requested a transfer. The following semester the College passed a rule that each person must stay in a house for at least two semesters before requesting a transfer.

"We found that once sophomores knew they had to spend an entire year in a house they were more likely to unpack their bags and stay a while," says Betty McNally, assistant to the master of Dunster House.

After implementating the new rule, transfers dropped dramatically. The following January only 25 people applied for a transfer, according to Colvin. Even after adjustment for the absence of sophomores this represents a decrease of 77 percent in overall transfers.

Most of the people who transfer do so for specific reasons. Colvin says that the majority of applications have only one or two choices listed, indicating that students are more interested in moving into a new house than out of their old one. McNally says that most of the transfers she has seen in her eight years at Dunster House occur "because people want to move closer to their friends."

Leslie A. Barbi '88 falls in part into this category because she used to live in Currier while most of her friends lived in Leverett. "I had a lot of friends in Leverett, and I thought I would be happier here," she says. "The distance [from the Quad] is no big deal really, but most of my friends live in Leverett."

Mark E. Denneen '88, who transferred from Currier to Eliot, says that the chance to live in a suite was behind his transferring to the Quad. "Living in a suite is much better than living in a single because of the daily interaction with your roommates and because of the responsibility you feel towards other people," says Deneen, who previously lived in a single.

Betsey A. Robinson '89, however, moved to Cabot House from Eliot House for exactly the opposite reason; she wanted the single that the Quad house could offer.

"When I got to Eliot House my room was terrible. It was way too small. I came to Eliot with one other person, and I had expected at worse another floater, and they put four of us in what was basically a double," says Robinson, who now lives in a single. "The extra space is more important to me than the extra three minutes of walking," she adds.

Although Robinson was a sophomore, exceptions to the rules can be made, and she was able to transfer out of Eliot after just a week. Extenuating circumstances or medical reason can be ground for a sophomore interhouse transfer, Colvin says.

Mooney agrees with Robinson that single-living is preferable to the suite arrangement. "I think living in a suite is overrated. I like the privacy of a single yet because we live on a long hall I get to see people all the time," says Mooney, who now lives alone in a large single.

"I don't mind the communal bathrooms either because it means that I never have to wait for a shower," Mooney added.

For those who are heavily involved in athletics, however, living in the Quad can make commuting back and forth to practice a highly time-consuming activity. Ben J. Elizondo '88, a co-captain of the men's waterpolo team, says that it became too difficult to keep his responsibilities as captain while living in the Quad.

"Basically, I transferred [to Leverett] because of the waterpolo team," says Elizondo. "It's ten times easier to coordinate activities now."

Elizondo says he wanted to avoid that "transient feeling" he got from commuting back and forth to the Quad. He says he made his final decision to transfer one morning at about 7 a.m. when he was riding down to practice on his bicycle.

"I was the only one on the waterpolo team who was living in the Quad so I was all alone riding to practice. Suddenly, I [was almost hit by] a car, and I realized at that moment that I had to transfer."